Who cares about web 2.0?

Lee Lefever over there at Commoncraft has written about a reality check regarding who is using the web tools like blogs, and twitter, and social networking. He has a good point. Those of us doing what I’m doing now may well be early adopters – although I must admit to feeling nothing like an early adopter as I struggle to understand and keep up with what’s happening in geekland. 

I have a blog, surf the net, enjoy social networking and twitter for two very pragmatic reasons.

The first is because my learning style is ‘active experimenter’ – I learn by doing. Telling me about web tools doesn’t compute (sorry – bad pun) – I have to use them to understand. That was my main motivation for starting this blog. I’m learning how to do podcasts the same way.

And the second reason is also very pragmatic. I work alone. I work from home. I have hermit tendencies. It would be way to easy to become isolated from the world. So the internet and its tools provide a way to keep me connected and knowing what’s going on in the world through trusted sources. You know who you are because you are listed over there on the left in my blogroll.

Actually, there’s a third reason too. I’m a science fiction fan. Not those new genre fantasy stories – the original sci fi wow! sorta stories that described a world that was just amazing. I find myself living in that world – amazed every day at the capacity to connect across the planet. I don’t care if no-one ever reads what I write. I like that I can write what i want and publish it. I like that i can make podcasts. I like that I’m lucky enough to live in my very own fantasy world AND it’s real. When I no longer care I’ll probably stop.